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International Journal of English
Literature and Culture
Vol. 1(3), pp. 59–63,
December, 2013
ISSN: 2360-7831
DOI: 10.14662/IJELC2013.015
Review
The Portrayal of Relationships in Gauri Deshpande’s ‘The
Lackadaisical sweeper’
Aparna
Mahajan
Department of English C.S.M’s Arts and Commerce College, Chakan
E mail : aparnavm@gmail.com, Cell no: 9822059678
Accepted 5 December, 2013
This article aims to study and interpret the
background of the interpersonal relationships focusing on the female
protagonists in the collection of Gauri Deshpande’s short stories
titled ‘‘The Lackadaisical sweeper.’ Gauri Deshpande has surveyed a
variety of shades in man woman relationships, their thoughts,
frustrations and the truth lying at the background of all this.
Gauri is a renowned and distinguished author and a poet in Marathi
and English literature. Her untraditional manner of presenting the
situation and the relationships, her frank and bold yet sensitive
narration of the stories attract the readers. Here an effort has
been made by Aparna Mahajan to explore the intricacies of the short
stories, taking the feminist approach as the touchstone. It is also
an effort to analyze the content and the technical aspects of the
book. The context, setting, characters, plot, literary devices, and
themes give insight into the author’s perspective and bias.
Key words: Interpersonal relationships, female protagonists,
Gauri Deshpande’s short stories.
INTRODUCTION
Gauri Deshpande, an eminent and one of the very popular authors in
Marathi literature, has written English short stories and the
collection of short stories is titled ‘The Lackadaisical sweeper’.
This collection contains a few stories written originally in English
and a couple of stories translated from Marathi. In all her
writings, the portrayal of characters has fascinating shades. The
male and female characters possess something unexpected from the
ordinary way of life. The protagonist women characters stand
different from the usual woman category types. They have special
place in the hearts of all her readers. Gauri sees her women not as
types but as an individual. Her style of writing is not aggressive
but certainly very strong, frank and true.
The characters and their interpersonal relationships are so
realistic and sensitive that every reader either feels that the
author must have experienced this or it is more than astounding to
see that she has articulated the feelings and thoughts of women at
every phase. She has spoken the innermost thoughts of women’s
hearts. The book gives us the experience of reading about ourselves.
At the same time we want to see how women are represented, what the
stories tell us about gender relations and sexual differences. The
book reflects the Universalist approach of feminism which deal and
discuss the problems of women of different milieu, ages,
civilizations and of varying psychic structures. The rule of
patriarchy is mirrored as the social order in which man dominates
woman through violent or sometimes in decent manner.There are some
points where the readers can not relate themselves. The author has
tried to point out such situations in the discussion.
Objectives
The article aims to study
• Woman as a subject and as an object
• To find out the rigid system of gender identity in the stories
with feminist approach.
• The patriarchal law which dominates woman through various
institutions like family, education and cultural practices which are
all designed to favor men.
• To search the variety of shades of man woman relationships, their
thoughts and frustrations in the stories.
• Universal element in gender relations
• To examine the fact that irrespective of time, language, place and
strata in society all the women reflect similar attitude of
suppression and oppression in the male dominated society.
Methodology
The author intends to read the anthology of Gauri Deshpande’s short
stories.
Also she will go through the other writings of Gauri Deshpande to
comprehend the style of her presentation.
It will be her honest effort to revise the feminist critical
theories of Elaine Showalter, Juliet Mitchell and Simon de Bouir.
DISCUSSION
Patriarchy or the law of the fathers is the social order in which
women are dominated by men. We are used to see the world and human
behavior from male perspective. Various institutions in the world
such as family, religion, education and culture reflect how men are
benefitted with this than a woman. Man, by default becomes the
centre of human existence and women get place at the periphery of
that circle. The word gender has got unnecessary importance in the
social order. Actually it is not a biological construct but a social
identity to see a place and a space of a man and a woman in the
society. it is distinctly mirrored in Gauri Deshpande’s short
stories. The portrayal of characters has fascinating shades. The
male and female characters possess something unexpected from the
ordinary way of life. The protagonist women characters stand
different from the usual woman category types. Yet they are to
certain level
of extent the victims of the patriarchal exploitation.
The women protagonists have special place in the hearts of all her
readers. Gauri Deshpande (1997) sees her women not as types but as
an individual. Her style of writing is not aggressive but certainly
very strong, frank and true. The characters and their interpersonal
relationships are so realistic and sensitive that every reader
either feels that the author must have experienced this or it is
more than astounding to see that she has articulated the feelings
and thoughts of women at every phase. She has spoken the innermost
thoughts of women’s hearts. This feeling of the reader is the
criteria of the good literature and Gauri Deshpande achieves this
success in her every novel, the poems and the short stories.
As the blurb of the book reads, ‘The stories probe the truth about
women, men and their relationships, thoughts, frustrations and
absurdities.’ Outwardly they look un-Indian but the deeper we read
them, the more we understand the undercurrents of her stories. It
will not be wrong to say that they are universal in every way. They
deal with various themes but the main theme is the way of thinking
of the Indians living abroad. This background is not comprehensible
to all the ordinary middle class families. The mode of her
sentences, the intermingling of sentences within the sentences, the
zigzag manner of writing makes the reader reread the context. Many a
times we, as the readers experience that we stop to think over what
exactly she means and again we are pushed in the gush to capture the
theme. Giving surprises, unanticipated twists are the soul of
Gauri’s writing. The stories are narrated in a simple manner,
without any pretence. They do not mean to reflect feministic point
of view, yet the roots of gender relations and the feminism are
present in them as any other basic emotion exists.
‘The Lackadaisical sweeper’ deals with themes which are bravely bold
and untraditional. The settings of the stories vary from place to
place. The couples are not traditional ones. There is one level of
modernity which sets the standard of thinking. Still there are some
age-old issues that peep out through the conversations, at times
explicitly or implicitly. In this title story of The Lackadaisical
Sweeper, two newlywed upper-middle-class wives, one Indian, the
other American, stationed in Hong Kong with their
businessman-husbands, meet and become friends as they take their
daily morning walks. Initially the outward appearance of both these
ladies convey the apparent difference between them. Yet they bind
and gel well with each other when they share their lives with each
other. Seeta’s naďvetéd and submissiveness attitude becomes a cause
to break this confidence in an unintentional way. Thinking her
husband very close to her she discusses all inside information about
her friend’s husband to him. Her husband uses this information for
grabbing their real estate and to flee them out of the country. The
reader is left pondering the sweeper’s judgment of Seeta, who may be
a virtuous Indian wife, but is not a good human being. This
unquestioning submissiveness to husband’s demands, trusting husband
to a great extent reflect the woman’s mind in general. Gauri
Deshpande comments on human nature, social structure, authority,
feminism, racism, friendship, love, and compassion using the tools
of context, setting, and characters in this story. The protagonist
Seeta is a daughter of post independence, liberal parents.. She is
modern, planning to go to Hong Kong, yet is a type who wanted to
have her name changed after marriage. Her husband, Narain does not
change it as he finds the name Seeta, as an epitome of wifely
virtue. Here Gauri Deshpande reveals the outward layers of the so
called modernity. Narain is a typical husband who decides when to
have a baby, and does not mind her going for a walk after he goes
for work. Thus he wanted her no more than a domestic slave.
In ‘The Debt’, the reaction of Indian father and American mother
varies when it comes to abort the child that came in the most
unwanted moment. Contemptuously she tells her husband, ‘In your
country, they may think of women as just baby making machines but
don’t forget I am an American! I will decide when to have a child,
if I decide to have a child at all.’ The traditional Indian reader
will not be able to digest Sajan asking ‘How can you say that? Don’t
I have any right over the baby’? We the readers get a deep dive into
the rational thoughts when the story proceeds further telling that
the sons have to look after their parents in their old age in Indian
culture. The traumatic situation takes place when Sajan has to face
the untimely death and his old father receives some money as
compensation. The father says,’It is the duty of children to look
after their parents in their old age.’ It is heartbreaking to see
such help from the son, Sajan. It is more astounding to see Anita
changed when she tells her little son whom she wanted to reject,
‘Remember Peter, children must look after their parents, “The debt”,
have to be paid. Thus the twist comes very unexpectedly at the end
of the story. This story takes the reader to a platform where all
will not be able to relate with it. The symbol of debt implies
discrepancy between what is said and what is meant.
‘Brand New Pink Nikes’, deals with a woman who gets dismayed looking
her image in the mirror. Her paunch, blue veined legs, slacking
breasts brings her into tears when she reaches her 50s. She knew
everyone grew old but her old age came to her unexpectedly which
troubles her and she gets it hard to accept. The chance encounter
with a lost tourist, his offer to have coffee together brings her
old smile and happiness back. This chance element makes her
introvert about the present phase of her life.
Gauri reveals the hidden rebellious attitude of a woman who wants to
reshape her life in her own accord in her story, ‘Map’. The honesty
and openness is reflected through the language of the story. The
story begins with a sentence ‘This is a map of my body’. The woman
in the story is well aware of the fact that the ‘me’ in his mind has
nothing to do with ‘me’ in my mind. She feels that she has been a
puppet to the tunes called by men in her life. She discards all the
chains that have bound her hitherto and reshapes the map of life
newly. This echoes the psyche of every Indian woman who irrespective
of her knowledge of western feminism wants a basic happiness, the
way she wants without anybody ‘allowing’ her to take it. It mirrors
the Indian society and the place and psyche of an Indian woman.
In ‘Insy Winsy Spider’ the mother daughter relationship and the
revelation of self is portrayed very effectively. Vishalakshi, the
mother has devoted her life to all intellectual activities. She does
not have priority to do housekeeping. She does not spend much of her
time in cooking and makes simple recipes of potato and DOODHI. She
is under impression that she is a kind of a role model for her
daughter, Maitreyee, who is in her teen age. To the mother’s
surprise, one day this daughter announces that she does not want to
pursue education henceforward and to get married when she was only
18 years old. Her thought, ‘I don’t want to do anything else but
want to get married and look after my home and family’, shocks
Vishalakshi. The situation answers any mother’s question, put by her
initially that ‘What are ‘we’? When we are ‘we?’ She realizes her
daughter is not like her. She feels how it was true that she is she
and not her mother. We, the readers keep thinking what should be the
circumstances of this situation? May be one cannot fulfill all the
expected roles by the near ones. We are left with a question how
should one decide the priority without feeling guilty and at the
same time achieve her own dreams.
The subject of ‘Dimitri in the afternoon’, is very delicate. Ulka,
the girl in the story has to go with her husband abroad, to Greece.
This situation that a boy settling in abroad, and after marriage the
girl has to accompany him there is still regarded as a very
fortunate opportunity by majority of Indians. It has become a
pattern of the elite and neo rich families in India. No one bothers
to dig into the real happiness of the girl. This girl happens to
meet a friend in whose company she finds real comfort. This boy is
no way good looking. On the contrary, he is very hefty and sturdy.
She calls him Dimitri, whose real name is Jack. We are at the point
of the story, when they are taking stroll on a sandy beach. They
share a soft feeling with each other. We understand they truly get
their vibrations matched with each other. While parting he kisses
her. ‘The kiss was not the prolonged preparatory sort of a kiss
which she knew very well. It was entire in itself; an entire and
complete communication between two human beings.’
Taking a few feminist approaches as touchstones, these stories
reveal interesting interpretations which reflect in the society
around us. The household is a basic unit of society where
individuals both cooperate and compete for resources. It is also a
primary place in which individuals confront and reproduce societal
norms, values, power, and privilege. Gender norms and differences
that are expressed within the household are reflected in larger
institutions of society. “Gender relations are not confined to the
domestic arena — although households constitute an important
institutional site on which gender relations are replayed out — but
are made, remade and contested in a range of institutional arenas”.
In other words, this is not simply a story of the household and its
members, but about the shaping of gender identities by larger
institutions, and the ongoing participation of family members in
creating new gender norms. Gauri Deshpande’s stories have this
thought as a backdrop; the inner feelings and brainstorming
thoughts, sometimes unarticulated, make the readers introvert about
the reflections of her own life. Women’s “inferiority” is used to
justify discrimination and abuse in the household and in society at
large and power inequity is reflected and reinforced by traditional
and modern laws and institutional practices.
The modern women who are educated enough to take their own
decisions, can think of their own identity in a society also have
certain barricades and have to struggle hard to overcome them in
Gauri’s short stories. The Ugandian proverb fits in this situation.
‘Even if a woman is given a chicken or a goat by her parents, she
cannot own it. It belongs to her husband. A wife may work hard and
get a chicken. If it lays eggs, they belong to the husband’.
All these stories present myriads of aspects of women’s thinking
under specific situationsAs per Juliet Mitchel’s views, patriarchy
creates and recreates the psychic conditions for women’s
subordination which are not the thin voil of false consciousness but
the very flesh and blood of female subjectivity. The character
sketches of women are the representations of the woman’s psyche.
Gauri Deshpande, probably wants to make the readers aware of the
fact of women’s suppression and subjectivity should not be looked
upon as a destiny but it is up to the women only to think and to
create their path in the given circumstances. Juliet Mitchell (1984)
describes the same process in her essay ‘ Femininity, narrative and
psychoanalysis’. She says, “Here we are: women. What are our lives
to be about? Who are we? Domesticity, personal relations, personal
intimacies. Stories…”
Simon De Beauvoir believes that woman’s inferiority in society is a
result not of natural differences but of differences in the
upbringing of man and woman. Male domination is not inherent or
fated but conditioned at every stage of development. De Beauvoir
says that “Man learns his power.” By the same token, woman is not
born passive, mediocre, or immanent. Rather, she is socialized to
believe that proper women must embody these characteristics and,
subtly and not subtly, she is conditioned to believe that denying
her true self is the only way to achieve happiness and gain
acceptance. To bring about substantial changes in society, young
boys and girls must be educated differently from the outset. Since
they are born equal, the possibility exists of their being equal in
adulthood as well as in childhood—but it is up to society to change
its skewed perspectives.
Elaine Showalter (1979, 1986) believes that the task is to
concentrate on women’s access to language from which words can be
selected on the ideological and cultural determination of
expression. Gauri Deshpande’s female protagonist Seeta in ‘The
Lackadaisical sweeper’ transparently conveys such notions. Finding a
friend on her own was some achievement to her. She was brought up to
assume money was made by men in the pursuit of some profession. In
her ‘A Harmless Girl’, the girl narrates how she lived her life. She
says, ‘I grew up practically non-existent. In my eternal endeavor to
live harmlessly, bother-lessly and noiselessly, I learnt to tiptoe,
to wear only flat, rubber-soled shoes, to eat and drink not only
without making the smallest noise but even without making the
smallest movement’. In the ‘Afterword’, Raj Rao aptly says that
these stories show a concern that women’s low self esteem is
peripheral in many stories.
CONCLUSION
The anthology ‘The Lackadaisical sweeper’ portrays women
protagonists who convey widely differed attitudes.The most
interesting part of these stories is, they reveal the under streams
of all types of relationships; may it be between friends, mother –
daughter, husband - wife or any permutations and combinations of the
myriads of the relationships. The gender relations are intricately
narrated in the stories. They describe the women and their hearts in
a manner that they pierce into the hearts of the readers. Some
readers may not approve this outwardly, saying that this does not
fit in Indian society and Indian culture. But Gauri Deshpande breaks
the boundaries created by society, and takes the readers to the
honest world of men and women through her stories.
REFERENCES
Gauri Deshpande. (1997). ‘The Lackadaisical sweeper’Manas
publication. Secondary Sources.
J.S.mill (1869). “The Subjugation of Women”, London. 1
Juliett Mitchell (1984). ‘Femininity,Narrative and Psychoanalysis’
ed. “Women: The Longest Revolution. Essays on Feminism, Literature
and Psychoanalysis” .
Elaine Showalter (1979). “Towards a Feminist Poetics” ed. “Women
Writing about Women” 1979
Elaine Showalter (1986). “Feminist Criticism in the
Wilderness” ed. “ The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women,
Literature and Theory. Ed Elaine Showalter, London: Virago 1986
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